Big Mary Walker's-great-great-granddaughter ventured into OU's Western History Collections and found a treasure-trove of information .

Tracking the Choctaw by EeKsand=am Lighthorsemen

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courageous woman goaded Information Network." This electronic a majority of the tribe's members to meAinto my first visit to OU's Western system allows researchers to check move from Mississippi to what is today History Collections . resources through a national network southeastern . By the late This woman was my great-great- of prcatigious research facilities . 1850s, Big Mary was married to her grandmother. Although I know her second husband, who was originally only through family legend, I deeply from Pennsylvania . According to the admire her. In 25 years as a writer for newspa- family stories, they farmed and ran a Yet on the day I first entered the pers and magazines, I've researched a stage station in Blue County of the marble halls of Monnet Hall, ready to lot oftopics, but I'm no historian. As a Choctaw Nation . Just at the begin- research her times, 1 was wondering reporter, I research by finding ning of the Civil War, Big Mary's hus- just where that admiration had led "sources," people who'll tell me what I band died, leaving her with children me . In Okie terms, I felt like a repro- need to know and give me some lively who were still young. bate in church . I was definitely in the quotes in the process. Digging through Times were tough in the Choctaw wrong pew. history books, microfilm and docu- Nation during the Civil War. Big ments is not my style . Mary's few field hands left. (Many TheWestern History Col lections are Choctaws owned slaves-even ones The University ofOklahoma's West- housed in Monnet Hall on the who had married men from "up ern History Collections is the largest, Parrington Oval, the "North Oval" to North .") Gangs of armed men, known the most complete, the widest in scope us older OU alumni . Monnet is that as "bushwhackers," roamed Indian of any assemblage of materials on the Territory, killing and looting. American West. Big Mary's youngest daughter, Su- The collections contain some 50,000 san Blackburn, never forgot the hard- books and thousands upon thousands ships ofher childhood, and she told her of'additional items-manuscripts, pe- daughter, whowasto become mygrand- riodicals, microfilm, photographs, mother, about how courageously Big maps, oral histories and artifacts. Mary met them. The Western HistoryCollections are "My mother said the bushwhackers a mother lode of historic facts and would steal any kind of stock," my viewpoints f'or undergraduate and grandmother told me. "Sometimes Big graduate students, historians, televi- Mary would get on a horse, take a gun sion and film researchers, textbook and chase them, trying to get her cattle authors, writers, genealogists or just back. But by the end of the war, the plain folks-for anyone interested in family didn't own as much as a chicken. any aspect of the "One time the bushwhackers came and the trans-Mississippi West. stately white stone building once right into the house. The family didn't Donald L. DeWitt has been curator known informally as "the Law Barn," have any kind of'a timepiece, so Big of the Western History Collections the one with the green owls under the Mary had taken her husband's watch since 1986. He says the WHC's "depth" eaves. and hung it on the wall. One of the is unequaled. On that first visit, I felt as if those bushwhackers saw it, and he reached "By `depth' I mean the support that owls might be hooting with laughter out to take it down, to steal it. But Big one body of documentation gives to at the thought ofme as a researcher . I Mary was quicker. She grabbed the the others," he explains . "The printed wondered what in the name of Big watch first. materials are here, but many times Mary Walker I was doing there. "Then she smashed it into the floor. you can find the printed materials in I'd come because ofmy schizophrenic She broke it to bits rather than let him other libraries. To go deep down into a career. Although I've spent most of'my have it." topic or to go broader into a topic, you working life writing strictly factual Many other family tales are told need to come and look at the unpub- news stories and magazine articles, I about Big Mary, but no one ever de- lished things (inthecollections) . Those also write fiction-murder mysteries. scribed her physical appearance and in turn are supported graphically by In addition, I'm a descendant of a apparently no photograph of her ex- the very large photograph collection . remarkable woman named Big Mary ists. I'll never know if she was called And we have a kind oficingon the cake Walker Watt Blackburn. Big Mary "Big" Mary because of her size or her with the oral histories. was a mixed-blood Choctaw, although character. I'm betting on character. "It's unusual to find a repository her degree of Choctaw blood is impos- Big Mary was a thrilling ancestor that has this breadth in the different sible to detect today, some 170 years for a little girl to hear about. When I kinds of'materials ." after her birth. According to family grew old enough to realize I wanted to The Western History Collections tales, she was a child of I I or so at the become a writer, I knew I wanted to are linked to other scholarly libraries time ofthe Choctaw Removal between turn Big Mary's story into a novel . But through RUN, "Research Libraries 1831 and 1833, when atreaty"induced" I also knew quite early that my favor-

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obtain a share of tribal lands . "Golly!" 1 told myself'. "Those lighthorsemen would make a heck ofa mystery series! 'I'hey would. 1 realized, make a mys- tcry series in which a strong frontier woman of mixed Choctaw and white blood-a woman who had faced adver- sity and overcome it, a woman who worked from dawn to dusk running a farm and a stage station, a woman who observed and understood human na- ture-could play a major role . Had I found a way to write Big Mary's story in my favorite literary form? It depended on those lighthorsemen Thev would have to be histror ically ac- curate to interest the typical mystery reader, who is notoriously picky. And I didn't really know anything about the lighthorsemen except that they xisted. Most books on the Old West on spend chapters Judge Parker's mar-shalsbutsay littleabout Indian law enforcement . The Debo book merely mentioned the lighthorsemen a few times. Where could I find out more? The logical place was the Western The .supplementarv material hi OU's Western History Collcctrons give researchers History Collections. a "depth" not found in other libraries . Here Kim Brewer li stens to recorded Kiowa Now I stood in Monnet Hall, sure Indian music from the old WNAD radio program, "Indians for Indians Hour." that my inexperienced attempts at re- search were about to make me ridicu- lous. rte form of fiction was the mystery Then I reached the chapter on crime in story, not the "straight" novel . So I the Choctaw Nation . hesitated to tackle Big Mary and her "In addition to the sheriffs, the Shirley Clark, administrative as- adventures. Choctaws had a special group of en- sistant for the Western History Collec- One factor that made me cautious forcement officers known as tions, staffs the front-office desk and is was my lack of knowledge about the lighthorsemen,"Debo wrote. "ThePrin- often the person who greets visitors. Choctaws . My grandmother's was the cipal Chiefhad six-later nine-whom The first thing she hands out is a smile. last generation to be listed on tribal he appointed and who served as his "It's very simple," Clark told me. rolls, and all I knew about the Civil special agents in carrying messages, "You just go right up there into the War in the Indian Territory came from making arrests, keeping liquor at a reading room and fill out a form ex- the family stories. They might be more distance during the Council sessions plaining who you are and what you're colorful than reliable. But a few years and assistingthe United States Indian interested in . The assistant will show agoI finally did something about learn- agent in the enforcement of the laws." you how to look for things and explain ing more; I read The Rise and Full of Wow! Nine special agents, working how things work. the Choctaw Republic, by . under the direct orders ofthePrincipal "Then she'll bring the material to Debo's book on theChoctaws is well- Chief of a sovereign nation-dealing you." researched, thoroughly footnoted, with the marshals from the famed Western History Collections mate- scholarly-interesting readingbut not hanging judge, Isaac Parker, of Fort rials are non-circulating; they may not sensational . I enjoyed her accounts of Smith. The lighthorsemen were in- be taken from the premises . They arc the Choctaws' social customs, then- volved in the complicated transactions in closed stacks-researchers may not educational system, their early con- of coal mining, solved cases of murder browse through at will. version to Christianity, their struggle and highway robbery, perhaps even However, the materials maybe used to accommodate their lives to the white sought out bigamous white men who by anyone who has a reason for re- world and their bicameral legislature. married Choctaw women so they could search. The collections are open from

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8 a.m. until 5 p.m. each weekday year- round and from 8 a.m. until noon each Dale spent money carefully; Saturday during the academic year. Some 250 researchers use them rule" was to spend monthly. his "informal The most common category of re- searcher, DeWitt says, is the under- no more than four dollars for a book. graduate student. "That's what we're here for-to sup- port the academic programs that the University offers," he says. "We're Phillips agreed, and in 1927 he the American Southwest between 1871 delighted that the students, use the pledged $10,000 as the first donation and 1874 by 1st Lt. George M. Wheeler collections, that they are capable of toward "The Phillips Collection ." Over of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. using them and that the resources we the years gifts from Phillips and the Published around 1875, the book is have support their work." Phillips Foundation to the body of illustrated with full-page photographs books and records that was the nucle- taken by famed frontier photographer us of the Western History Collections Timothy O'Sullivan . totaled $67,000. Lovett points to the spine. "Here's Dale spent the money carefully. In where Dale marked the date of a pur- he Western History Collections his book, The Seeds of Excell once, Presi- chase and the amount he paid for an wereTbegun by Edward Everett Dale, dent Emeritus George Lynn Cross item." an OU graduate who joined the quotes Savoie Lottinville, then direc- The penciled figures are clear. Dale University's history faculty in 1914 tor ofthe OU Press, as saying Dale had paid $4.50 for the book in 1939 . after receiving a master's from an "informal rule" of'spending no more "Today this is probably the most Harvard . Dale had been reared on a than four dollars for a book. valuable single item in the collec- ranch, andhe was intensely interested John Lovett, the present librarian tions," Lovett says. "It's probably in the history of the American West. ofthe Western HistoryCollections, says worth $40,000, or even more if it were From the beginning of his career, he one of Dale's prize acquisitions was a taken apart and sold page by page." was devoted to locating and collecting copy of"The Wheeler Survey," official- Originally the Phillips Collection important materials on the history of ly titled West ofthe 100th Meridian . occupied a single bookshelf in Dale's Oklahoma and the American West. This book-a volume 20 inches tall, office . The Western History Collec- Dale became head of the history 17 inches wide and two inches thick- tions later were housed in Bizzell department in 1923, a year after earn- is a record of surveys undertaken in Memorial Library itself, then moved ing his doctorate from Harvard. He believed that a strong graduate pro- gram in history would best be achieved by concentration in one area of re- search. With Dale's background, the logical choice was the trans-Missis- sippi West, with emphasis on the his- tory of'Oklahoma . Dale saw the need for money to acquire materials to back this re- search, and he asked a Tulsa attor- ney, Patrick Hurley, for help . Hurley arranged for Dale to meet legendary oilman Frank Phillips at his Bartlesville ranch, Woolaroc . There Phillips told Dale that he himself' had begun a collection of books and materials on theWest. Was there a need for two such resources in Oklahoma'? No, Dale told Phillips . One collec- tion would be better-and it should be located at the University ofOklahoma, The photo archives in thWestern History Collections contain nearly 250,000 prints where it would be more accessible to and negatives WHC librarian and photo archivist John Lovett examines an early- the students and researchers. day glass plate negative, taken by J. A. Shack, in Norman Brillhart Collections.

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brary reading room is in atmosphere a miniature of Bizzell's Great Reading Room . Stained glass accents the de- sign offloor-to-ceiIi ng windows at each end of the room, and balconies rim along each side. Smaller rooms open onto either side of the main reading room and the balconies-many ofthem equipped with locks to safeguard the special collections and some of the WHO's most valuable items. The physical setup, DeWitt says, is adequate . "We have 25,000 square feet, all in Monnet Hall," he says. "The materials are safe-as safe as they'd be in any building on campus at this time. Of Course, there are deficiencies. Wehave inconveniences in moving things. Our shelving is not as efficient as it could be. We can control temperatures but not always humidity . Our handicapped access is passable but not good." He smiles ruefully . "We're growing Shown here in the room devoted to the Hem-r Bass Collection on Abraham Lincoln short on space. The end is very close." and the Civil War, WHC' curator Donald DeWitt holds one of the collection :s treasures, Lincoln ;s personal copy of The Poetical Works of Fitz-Greeve Halleck.

to Monnet Hall in 1976 . donated were Henry Bass' materials Research assistants are always on The collections have grown through on the Cherokee Strip. duty when the reading room is open . I donations of materials, as well as Books are only the beginning ofthe was greeted by an OU senior, Melissa through purchases . A dozen named printed materials in the Western His- Tuttle, who explained the routine . collections today recognize such do- tory Collections. The collections in- "First," she said politely, "no pens nors to the library. In addition to the clude shelves upon shelves of"serials," are allowed in this library." I slid my Phillips Collection, these include the the library term for magazines, alma- erasable ball-point into my purse, and Glenn P. Bradley, E. E . Dale, Alan nacs, yearbooks and other publications Melissa gestured to a container full of Farley, Patricia Grass, John Morris printed-well, serially. Theseinclude, freshly-sharpened yellow pencils . "We and Fred Schonwald collections, all of for example, bound copies ofHarlow ;s have plenty of pencils. Just fill out this which include materials on Okla- Weekly, an Oklahoma politicaljournal form, and we'll get started." homa, Native Americans and frontier for the years from 1912 to 1940, and The form is simple-name, address, history; the Norman Brillhart Collec- sets of the Buffalo Bill dime novels. research topic and a pledge to abide by tion on General George A. Custer; the Modern journals, such as the Ameri- the WHC rules. Researchers are asked Henry Bass Collection on Abraham can Indian Quarterly or the Western to categorize their reasons for being Lincoln and the Civil War; the Mr. and StatesJewish History, are also on hand. there-student, historian, writer or Mrs. Robert Fay Collection on the Loui- Someitems, copies ofthe U.S. Army "other." siana Purchase and the St. Louis Register from 1835 to 1890, for ex- As a topic, I wrote "Choctaw World's Fair; the Earl Bell Collection ample, are of special interest to gene- Lighthorsemen." Melissa did not ask on Arctic explorations ; and the Bill alogists, as well as historians . why 1 was interested . This was a Burkhardt Collection of western fic- relief'-people look at you strangely tion paperbacks . when you tell them you're planning a The Bass Collection, donated by the murder . family ofthe late Enid businessman, is "I know we have pictures of the of particular note. Included are the The reading room of the Western lighthorsemen," Melissa said. "Just two most interesting items, a two-vol- History Collections, on Monnet's fourth have a seat at one of the tables, and I'll ume collection of'poetry once owned by floor, once served as the reading room get the Choctaw photos. You can look Lincoln and a copy of'Lincoln's favorite of the OU law school . Running the at them while I find out what books we poem in his own handwriting. Also width of the building, this classic li- have."

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also operated as a trav- eling photographer in western Oklahoma Copies of photo- Territory and the Tex- graphs are displayed as Panhandle . in approximately 50 "He'd join one of loose-leaf notebooks. these cattle outfits and Eachcontainspictures photograph all the on a particular topic. cowboys. He'd shoot Lovett is the photo- the glass plate nega- graphic archivist in tive, then develop it in addition to being li- his wagon," Lovett ex- brarian for the collec- plains . "Thenhe'd sell tions. the cowboys prints . While undergradu- When they'd run out ates are themost com- of money, he'd go to mon researchers anothergroup . Hewas among the books, making a living, but Lovett says that 90 he was also document- percent of the users of ing the range cattle the photographic ar- industry." chives are from out- The Western His- side the University tory Collections also Community. are the repository for "Publishers oftext- a number of oral his- books, people doing tories and some his- documentaries-that toric motion pictures . type of thing," he ex- During the 1960s plains. Ken and Ric and early 1970s, the Burns, producers of Doris Duke Founda- television documenta- tion funded a project ries such as "The Civil that recorded 695 War" and "The Wild tapes of interviews on West," have used tribal traditions . WHC photographs, for These tapes have been example. transcribed and are The photographic available on micro- collection was begun fiche. A number of by Dale in 1927 and reminiscences ofOkla- now includes nearly homa pioneers and 250,000 prints and Oklahoma Indians, negatives. The collec- Included in the manuscript collection are 1,500 groups of documents, such madeduring the 1930s tion emphasizes the as thepapers ofthe Cherokee and Choctaw nations and records ofthe Paw-eeBillWildWestShowarm the101Ranch,featured in theposterabove as a WPA project, are Southwest and West also available. between 1870 and Hundreds of re- 1940 and is strong on cordings of the "Indi- Native Americans, Oklahoma's land Ranger collections . They're still upset ans for Indians Hour," made during runs and lotteries, settlement and de- that they let that collection get out of broadcasts on OU's radio station velopment of Oklahoma towns, the Texas ." WNAD between 1943 and 1964, are in cattle business, agriculture and the The collection includes the work of the archives. These programs featured petroleum industry, and lawmen and many professional photographers, traditional Indian music, punctuated outlaws. Lovett says, but much of it is simply by announcements of dances, hand "A lot ofinstitutions down in Texas snapshots or family photographs from games and other social events. grind their teeth every time they have settlers' albums. to buy a photograph from us," Lovett One ofthe most heavily usedgroups says . "During the Texas Sesquicen- of photographs is the A. A. Forbes tennial, they used our collection exten- Collection . Forbes operated a studio in Candace Greene is a specialist in sively . We have one of the best Texas Oklahoma City during the 1890s. He North American ethnology for the de-

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partment of anthropology of the Na- "The Western History Collections both the Cherokee and Choctaw na- tional Museum of'Natural History-a are a real treasure." tions and records from the 101 Ranch part of the Smithsonian Institution . and the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show, She has used the Western History Col- PH" as well as hundreds of'diaries, letters, lections to research a number oftopics . business records, scrapbooks and post- "Most recently I used it to do re- Melissa brought me several books . ers saved by ordinary people who just search on the material culture of the She already had marked the pages happened to be pioneers . Kiowas. I began with the 19th century containing references to the Choctaw Dale made one ofhis most astonish- and linked it to the current culture. I Lighthorsemen. Twenty minutes later ing document finds in 1919, long be- used the photos, the manuscripts, the as I read happily, she reappeared. fore the Phillips Collection was estab- published materials and some oral "All I find in our manuscript collec- lished, when a student told him of a histories that are part of the Doris tion on the lighthorsemen is a refer- family friend who had many papers of Duke project. ence in the papers of'Peter Pitchlynn," prominent Cherokees in her barn . In- "The (WHC) manuscript material, she said . cluded were trunks full of the papers of of course, is unique . The Doris Duke I realized that she had spent the Stand Watie, the Cherokee who was a project is available on microfilm, but last 20 minutes on my project. Confederategeneral, and several other the Oklahoma portion ofthe study was well-known Cherokee families . Dale run out of'OU, so that's really the best po- was able to obtain the papers on loan place to go." and later to purchase them . The Western History Collections are The WHC manuscript collection In libraries, documents are stored extremely valuable to an anthropolo- includes some 1,500 groups of docu- in acid-free document boxes, upright gist, Greene says . "People think that ments and occupies between 11,000 boxes made of a heavy, pure paper here at the Smithsonian we have ev- and 12,000 linear feet of shelf' space, stock. The Western History Collec- erything, but there are still a lot of DeWitt says. It contains many official tions include rows and rows of these valuable materials out there . archives, such as the official papers of boxes, closely packed on metal shelves that reach to the ceiling and line narrow aisles . These stacks fill three floors in a wing at the back of Monnet Hall . It is no place for the claustropho- bic. Many of the collections of papers are fascinating to the social historian. Lovett recently joined Mel- issa H. Nored in writing an article based on funeral records of the Redwine Store, a business operated for many years near Spiro. "Redwine's was a sort of general store," Lovett says, "and Iike many such places in those days, they sold coffins and served as un- dertakers. Their com- ments on the causes of death were very interest- ing. The records of a store like that give a real picture of the community." While the Western His- tory Collections have a strong regional focus, Preserving documents in danger of deterioration is the job of the collections' assistant curator many of the documents Bradford Koplowitz, shown here deacidfying a rare map rising the Wei To Soft Spray system . have signif icance reaching The WHC. preservation lahoratory is one of only three .such facilities in the .state. far beyond regional bound-

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aries. The collected papers of Patrick use acids in thepaper-makingprocess. Hurley are a good example. The Tulsa These papers break down much faster attorney who originally put Dale in than papers that do not contain acid. Dabbling in research at the West- touch with Frank Phil lips, Hurley later In the WHC lab, Koplowitz is able to ern History Collections taught me a practiced law in Washington, D .C . He stall this process, perhaps for200years lot. I learned the site ofthe "Blackburn also served as Secretary of War under or so. He often encapsulates the de- Station" on the Butterfield Stage Line. President Herbert Hoover and as Am- acidified documents in polyester film I learned that one of Big Mary's cous- bassador to China under President to further protect them. ins was accused ofkilling a member of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Documents and books may be a prominent Choctaw family and that "His papers take our another cousin nearly holdings well beyond the was executed by the scope oftraditional west- lighthorsemen during a ern American history to tribal dispute over royal- the international level," ties on coal mined near DeWitt says. McAlester. More than 20,000 mi- More importantly, I crofilms and microfiche learned that the polite also are included in the and efficient staff of a Western History Collec- well-run library makes tions . Many of these ma- research easy-even for terials originated in the the beginner . National Archives, Lovett What did I learn about says. For example, the the Choctaw Lighthorse- census cards of the mem- men themselves? bers of the Five Civilized I learned that they Tribes when they were werecreated around 1820 enrolledbefore Oklahoma and were active until the statehood are available. Choctaw Republicceased The archives of the to exist at the time of Oklahoma statehood. In also are preserved in the the earlier period, each Western History Collec- lighthorseman served as tions. investigator, judge, jury-perhaps even as ex- ecutioner . Later the Choctaws established courts on the American Bradford Koplowitz, 0 pattern, and the light- WHC assistant curator, horsemen apparently is in charge of the docu- functioned much as ment preservation labo- today's policemen do. ratory. In the lab, docu- Sheriffs also had county ments that are deterio- lighthorsemen. rating or are in danger of Would alighthorseman deterioratingare mended be a good detective for a andpreserved . Koplowitz period murder mystery? From. 18.90 also coordinates preser- to 1907, the Choctaw Lighthorsemen served the Choctaw It all depends. A lot vation work for the Republic as special law enforcement agents of the Principal Chief by more research would be Bizzell Library. carrying messages, making arrests, controlling liquor and assisting required-atthe Western The Western History U.S. Indian agents and marshals . Within the territory, they were History Collections and Collections lab is one of empowered toactas investigator, judge juty and, perhaps, executioner . among historical records only three such facilities in eastern Oklahoma . in Oklahoma ; others are at the Okla- mended, cleaned, treated for mold or Would the current vogue for histori- homa Department of Libraries and at humidified in the lab, and tape is re- cal mysteries last long enough for me the University of Tulsa. moved. The lab also builds "phase" to get the topic researched and writ- One of the major lab activities is boxes from an extremely pure, acid- ten? Could my agent sell such a book? "deacidifying" documents. Late in the free paper stock to protect the fragile Would the public read it? 19th century, manufacturers began to books. That's a mystery I haven't solved. OU

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